I'm back

"Home" in Norwich

"Home" in Johannis

I took a holiday

It was the fifteeth time in as many months that I had packed my suitcase!

This was my sixth visit to England since last June. In the past twelve months I have attended one wedding and five funerals there.

This time I planned an English holiday, although I must admit that the black trousers where stashed in the bottom of my suitcase, just in case. Fortunately that is where they remained.

I have had a lovely, lovely holiday, the best time that I have had for years, lots of rest and nice people.

For most of the timeI helped my Dad in the garden. As you can see from the first photograph he is doing a marvelous job of keeping it spick and span, although he is missing dreadfully the presence there of my Mother who died in June last year. She had spent just about every waking moment over the last forty years pulling up weeds and potting up plants. The weeds went onto one of her four huge compost heaps and the plants she sold at the market.

Never to late to learn

In between gardening I ate the meals that my Dad cooked for me. I enjoy pulling up weeds much more than he does (just as Mum did) and much more than cooking (also just like Mum!). Dad is a far better cook than I am anyway. He has learnt a lot in twelve months of living alone.

As I always say to my clients, "It is never too late to learn". My Dad is nearly eighty-three and is living alone for the first time in his life. He is learning amazingly fast. I admire him very much.

A real holiday

I had decided that I would have a real holiday with no computer. I wanted to be one-hundred-percent away from work, one-hundred-percent at home. I did it with absolutely no side effects what-so-ever, except for having not many dots on my map!

Ten whole days with no link to cyberspace, and with only one quick peep at my emails just in case there was anything important.

I stopped thinking about work.

I can't say that I stopped being a conductor, I never do, but I forgot work, Conductive Education and blogging.

I don't even have the notebook full of notes that I usually acquire when away from a computer for a long stretch. There is not one scrap of paper with half-written blogs stuffed in my handbag.

But now my pristine, bought-for-the-holiday notebook is beginning to burn a hole in my pocket, indicating that it is time to get blogging again!

Zurück in Deutschland

I have been back in Germany since Tuesday. It was back to work immediately, wearing all of my hats every day.

It is now Saturday and I have at last unpacked for the fifteenth time and done all the returning-from-holiday domestic things. I feel like I am "home" at last. As I write I am at the Kirchweih in Johannis, sitting on a bench in my favourite gardens a step away from the crowds and the live music. I am watching the crowds, listening to the music, smelling the smoked fish, hearing the sizzling sausages, watching crepes being tossed and avoiding the as always long queue at the Langos stall.

Yes, Hungarian langos has been a hit for the last twenty years at least here in Bavaria. There is a stall at just about every beer festival, selling crispy langos with garlic and sourcream sauces.

The Kirchweih is on for the next three days so, despite having to work this Sunday (more about that in a later blog), I will still get another chance to hear live music, this time at the vegetarian restaurant, on Monday evening.

This is my first experience of the Johannis Kirchweih, although I had heard on the grapevine that it is something quite special. Johannis, the area of the city where I live, is in itself somethng quite special, a village within a city, just ten minutes' walk from its centre.

I am very lucky to be living here. The Kirchweih is all I have heard about and more, the atmosphere swirls around the people as it mixes with the smoke from the various grilled and smoked foods.

It has taken me all week to realise how lucky I am to live here. I have been missing Norfolk and my Dad. it has been hard getting used to being alone again although it is a joy to be back at work.

Now I am enjoying Johannis too.

It is going to be a week of Johannis cafes I fear! I have three appointments already to meet in three different cafes and somehow, in between all of that, I have to find time to go to work.

Yes I am back, and busy!

Notes

Langos -

"Hungarian fast food" , a flat dough circle which is deep fried and served with different sauces, garlic, or sour cream, or of course both!

Johannis -

http://www.johannis-nuernberg.de/